Google Confirms Chinese Hack Attempt on Gmail

CNBC.com

Wednesday, 1 Jun 2011 | 4:53 PM ETCNBC.com

SHARES

Unkown hackers believed to have been working from China carried out a "campaign" attempting to collect email passwords of U.S. and Asian officials, Chinese activists, military personnel, and journalists, Google said on Wednesday.

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A sign is displayed outside of the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.

"We recently uncovered a campaign to collect user passwords, likely through phishing," Google said, making a reference to an email hacking practice where perpetrators try to trick users into handing over their passwords.

"This campaign, which appears to originate from Jinan, China, affected what seem to be the personal Gmail accounts of hundreds of users including, among others, senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea), military personnel and journalists," Google said.

Google shares were only slightly lower in extended trading Wednesday, on a day when stocks sank broadly on major U.S. indexes. Get late Google quotes here.